Truck Series Newcomer On A Roll Despite Broken Wrist

Rarely is Boise, Idaho considered a prime breeding ground for NASCAR racers. But Brian Scott, the 21-year-old Camping World Truck Series driver, is beginning to prove otherwise.

Driving the Xpress Motorsports No. 16 Toyota Tundra, Scott has scored a win, a second and two third-place finishes in the past seven races and sits sixth in the standings heading into this weekend’s race at Kentucky Speedway. Hornaday is the leader by 76 over Matt Crafton.

Making Scott’s recent performances even more impressive is the fact that he’s run the past two races with a broken right wrist, suffered in a crash at Michigan. He gives most of the credit to his team.

“It really shows the strength of our team because I’m not able to be 100-percent because of the cast, but everyone else has really shined,” Scott said. “We’ve got such good equipment and unload strong at the track. My hat’s off to the guys because they’ve really stepped up and filled in the gaps.”

He said after his third-place finish at Milwaukee that there were certain times that the wrist was more problematic than others.

“Going through the gears was hard, and it was just hard in race situations,” he said. “Once I went into the corner, I was pretty much stuck there. I couldn’t change the line or juke to get to someone’s quarter panel…”

Scott said that barring bad luck or more broken bones, he feels his truck is a top-five contender every time out.

“Everybody on our Xpress Motorsports Albertson’s Toyota Tundra – they put in really hard work and a good effort in the shop,” he said. “That ultimately translates to how we showed up at a race. We unload well and we run well.… All the guys, they just work tirelessly.”

He described his crew chief Jeff Hensley as “the best crew chief when you get to a race track.”

“He calls a great race, and he can see it through to the end. He knows our fuel mileage. He knows our pit strategy. He has it figured out.

“I’m just lucky enough to go out there and drive. If I don’t screw up and we don’t have any bad luck, we can contend for a win every week and definitely a top-five.”

It was due in large part to a pit call by Hensley that Scott was able to score his breakthrough win at Dover in May. The first words out of Scott’s mouth after his Dover win were praise for Hensley.

““Track position at the end – we played the game perfectly,” he said. “I commend [Hensley. At times I didn’t think it was the right call or we were going to be in position, but it all worked out.”

Scott said he was able to make it from Boise to the top rungs of the truck series mostly because his father, Joe Scott, supports him. The elder Scott, who now owns the Xpress race team, has been furnishing his son racing vehicles from the start.

“My dirt racing and mini sprints got started because I wanted a go-kart and my dad had enough wisdom to know that if he got me a go-kart, he’d probably get a lot of complaints from the neighbors,” Brian Scott said. “So, he figured out a controlled way for me to race go-karts – mini sprints on dirt circle tracks – which progressed to sprint cars.”

But driving for dad isn’t as pressure-free as it might appear on the surface.

“There’s added pressure,” Scott said. “You understand the inner workings of everything – the process from start to finish … bare metal on a sheet rack to a truck in contention for a win on the track. You know the money that goes in.

“Other drivers have pressure to perform to keep a ride and sponsorship, and I have that too, but it’s just a different type of pressure.”